There are so many strips coming out on mondays that I forgot to check this one and so, for a second while this strip was loading and only the upper half was visible, I thought that was Sal. Kinda disappointed now, but this does make a lot more sense. XD

The Becky kissing Joyce thing felt decent to me, both because it’s displayed later that she had a really idealized version of events she was hoping that’d go down as and because it felt like it needed to be sudden to have as much of an impact, storywise. Joyce’s shock and their talking it out afterwards felt like a concise version of what’d happen in real life–the awkwardness of unmatching feelings being acknowledged and glazed over by good friends.

All of David Willis’ surprise kisses I can remember, I’ve been fine with (the Ruth/Billie thing being treated as accordingly skeevy, with Billie pushing Ruth off of her). In most fiction where it’s just sort of waved away, though…yeah, it’s pretty unpleasant. (Especially when it comes in the middle of an argument and the kissee just decides “oh, okay then, better do this instead!”)

No yeah, DoA’s been really sex positive which I appreciate, and it understands that the surprise kiss is bullshit in a real world context (I think the closest to being played as romantic was Dorothy kissing Walky, but that still came after them both clearly establishing they were interested in another). Becky apologized to Joyce later on (and immediately focusing on it would be unfair with all the shit Becky was going through), and Ruth kissing Billie was straight up sexual assault and not, like, what made Billie realize she always loved her or something gross, and Ruth went through a lot of bullshit because of it.

Yeah, those are pretty much my feelings as well. In media that isn’t as good about acknowledging the “hey, isn’t this actually kind of out-of-nowhere and jarring and weird” aspect, and having the kissed character react accordingly and retain their own feelings about it…eesh.